10 times ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ was sexist as hell

The Devil Wears Prada has some great feminist moments (Anne Hathaway’s character, Andy, informing a dude that she is not his “baby”), but it also has serious disasters related to gender, especially in its depiction of women’s bodies, women’s ambition and, well, women.

1/10

The Dragon Lady

The whole thing about Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) is that she’s supposed to be this aggressive, terrifying, unreasonable, beastly human (hence her nickname “The Dragon Lady”). She’s also a woman in control of an empire, but the dominant narrative of the movie is that she’s a genuinely awful person who’s unredeemable, and worst of all, she’s a woman.

2/10

“Go ahead, hire the smart, fat girl”

In The Devil Wears Prada universe, Andy (Anne Hathaway) is a gross, dowdy creature who can be helped only by a huge makeover involving Manolos and Valentino. Also, if you didn’t know, a size 6 is considered fat, but don’t worry: She gets down to an acceptable size 4 by the end of the movie.

3/10

Dudes are on your side, women are not

For most of the film, Andy has no female allies at work. She’s constantly being insulted by Emily (played by Emily Blunt) and criticized by Miranda, and the only person who does seem to be interested in her success, without an agenda of his own, is Nigel (Stanley Tucci). Frankly, it’s disappointing that it’s a man who wants to help her succeed when she’s surrounded by women, which just drives home the movie’s idea that women can’t help each other.

4/10

You can’t be nice AND effective

Andy will never make it, according to Christian Thompson (Simon Baker), a floppy-haired writer whose agenda is to sleep with her. She’s too nice and smart to work for Miranda, who apparently needs a mean, dumb “girl” to be her assistant. Nice and smart is supposedly not a thing in a woman — one of those things needs to go in order to succeed, and in this movie, it’s going to have to be nice because you can’t treat people well at Runway.

5/10

Pointing out sexism = the dark side

Andy tells Christian (of the floppy hair) that if Miranda were a man, she’d be praised for her unrelenting quest for perfection. Christian’s response: “You, my friend, are going over to the dark side.” I don’t see what’s so difficult about understanding that pointing out sexism is not the same thing as defending bad behavior, but it seems to be really confusing for Christian.

6/10

Unattractive = useless

Andy isn’t effective until she’s clad in expensive clothes and wearing makeup, and pre-makeover Andy is apparently the worst thing anyone at Runway has ever seen (just ask Emily and every woman she talks to), so of course, her ability to do her job is constantly in question. Make yourself attractive, ladies, or else you’re completely useless.

7/10

Successful women are threatening to men

Throughout this movie, it’s made abundantly clear that women cannot be successful and have good relationships, especially with men. Andy’s relationship with her boyfriend, Nate (Adrian Grenier) comes to an end, as does Miranda’s second marriage. Her husband is open about not being able to handle the fact he’s seen as her accessory and not as the main event. Ew.

8/10

Younger women are better

Miranda Priestly is revered, but let’s not forget that she’s a shriveled crone who’s rapidly becoming irrelevant, according to the super-secret plan (which is not a secret) to replace her with the younger and fresher Jacqueline Follet.

9/10

Don’t support other women

Women can’t be friends. Women are shrill and catty and will do anything to sabotage each other and have no concept of what it means to support one another. The idea that there is enough for everyone and that building up other women is good for everyone does not exist in The Devil Wears Prada. It’s in almost every scene, starting from the first interaction between Andy and Emily.

10/10

Materialism, materialism, materialism

The only reason Andy stayed as long as she did at Runway was she was wooed by expensive clothes, according to Nate. (Shut up, Nate.) Because women love shirts and purses and shoes and nothing that possibly goes on at a fashion magazine could be of substance, but women don’t care about substance, and anyway, it’s impossible to be interested in beauty and fashion and still be smart.